FIC: In Another Life (6/22) - BtVS/Numb3rs
Title: In Another Life (6/22+Epilogue)
Author: lyl_devil
Rating: PG-15
Fandom: BtVS, Numb3rs
Pairing: Willow/Don
Beta: strangevisitor7 & kallie_kat
Words: ~36,000 (as of Dec 4, 2008)
Disclaimer: I don’t own either show. I just like to play in their sandboxes.
Summary: Every action has a consequence and every deal comes with a price. Willow’s life is wiped clean, so she makes a new one for herself in LA.
Master Post
Note: I don’t claim to know anything about magic, medicine or the FBI - what I didn’t pick up from tv and books, I made up.
~!~
Part 6
Megan waited until the third heaping spoonful of salt was added to his coffee before calling him on it.
"Something bothering you, Don?" asked Megan, keeping one eye on Colby and David through the glass of the break room wall. A subtle twitch of her head conveyed her request, both nodding in agreement. Satisfied that the two agents would keep others out for a few minutes, Megan turned all her attention on her boss.
He'd been distracted and unfocused all morning, going so far as to snap at anyone unlucky enough to wander into his vicinity. David and Colby both agreed with her that it wasn't just the obvious hangover that was the cause for Don's attitude today, and the guys had left it to her to find the reason.
"Hm?" he said distractedly, pulling out his cell phone. He looked at it intently for a moment before putting it away. That was another thing David had commented on - the constant phone checks. They couldn't figure out if he was trying to decide to call someone, or waiting for it to ring, but either way it was very unlike him. Don was rarely indecisive at work, always making the call no matter how tough it was. His personal life was a different matter though; still, he rarely let it intrude on his work.
"You seem distracted this morning," she said simply, taking a small sip of her coffee.
"I'm fine." Right. Like that was going to convince anyone, Megan thought.
"How's your coffee?" she asked pointedly, waiting patiently as he gave her a weird look before taking a deliberate drink.
Then waiting patiently as he spat it out into the sink.
"Decaf?" she asked teasingly, keeping the smile small and hidden behind her cup. Don took a few mouthfuls of water to rinse the taste of salty coffee from his mouth, before looking to the container of salt he'd been using to sweeten his coffee. Megan watched as his shoulders slumped slightly in defeat.
"It's nothing."
"It's not nothing if you're salting your coffee without realizing it, Don."
"I just need to work some stuff out," he insisted, turning to face her. "Personal stuff."
That was the Don Eppes she was more familiar with. The one that needed to mull something over very carefully before deciding whether or not to open himself up emotionally.
Which meant there was a woman in Don's life. A woman no one on the team knew about; that most likely his family didn't know about. It seemed fairly serious if the way he was brooding was any indication.
"You know I'm always willing to listen," she offered, hoping he would open up to her.
"Yeah, I know," he said, giving her a small smile. "So, where are we on those real estate records?"
Later, Megan regretted not pushing for more information from Don. She knew she could have pried the information out of him one way or another. Instead she stood confused and helpless as she - and most of the office - watched the shadowy figures of Don and a visitor have an arm-waving, yelling match in the interrogation room. The words might be muffled, but the volume and the tone sure weren't.
"Who is he?" she asked Colby, turning her head but keeping her eyes on the drama going on behind the blinds.
"Milo Grant," he said as he put down the receiver. "Signed in as a guest of Vic Renkins from the basement."
Information Retrieval Unit. Huh. "But how does he know Don?" she asked absently, wondering how a friend of the IRU head came to be having a yelling match with an FBI field agent.
"I have no clue," said Colby.
Megan continued to watch the shadow figures, her mind putting together pieces of a puzzle she didn't know existed until today.
The door to Interrogation partially opened and their guest, Milo, threw one last volley at Don, "Fix it, Eppes. I don't care how!"
The rest of the office suddenly found their work extra fascinating, but Megan kept her eye on the door as Milo stormed back to the elevator.
Waiting for activity to return to normal around her, Megan considered her next move. They were in the middle of evidence gathering, just starting to put the pieces together on the new case they were working. Don half-focussed now was an annoyance, but later it could be dangerous if his head wasn't fully in the game.
"Woah, what happened here?" said a voice, drawing Megan's attention away from the older Eppes brother to greet the younger one. Charlie had arrived to help them make some sense of the numbers they were seeing in the current case. Apparently he had arrived too late to see the midday show. However, he had arrived in time to catch the awkward, unnatural silence that still held a grip on the majority of the office.
"Hey, Charlie. You ever heard of a guy named Milo Grant?" asked Colby.
"Mi-no, I don't think - should I have?" Charlie asked, looking confused at the non sequitur.
"Well, he sure knows Don."
Before Colby could start to gossip like the teenage girl she secretly thought he was, Megan announced, "I think Don could use a coffee."
"He could use a beer," said David. Megan ignored him, and made her way to the interrogation room Don had yet to emerge from.
Megan popped her head in the room and asked, "You want to get a coffee?"
"We have coffee here," he said, looking confused.
"Yeah, but we're out of salt," she smiled. "C'mon, let get out of this place for a bit."
Turning on her heels, Megan boldly walked towards the elevator, hoping that her bravado would be enough to pull Don along behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she was please to see him coming towards her.
A short while later, sitting outside one of the nearby cafes, Don started to look more relaxed by the minute.
"You going to tell me what's going on with you?" she asked, breaking the silence. For a minute she didn't think she would get a response.
Don sighed quietly and said, "I made a mistake last night."
"How so?"
"Something happened that I never meant to happen, and I don't know how to deal with it."
"Does this have to do with a woman?" she asked quietly, knowing what a minefield Don's romantic life was like. And it had barely been a month since Liz, so she was doubly cautious.
"Yeah."
"Does it have anything to do with why you came in hung over this morning?"
A little quieter, "Yeah."
"How long have you been seeing her?"
"I haven't been - not in the way you mean."
Megan remained silent, waiting for Don to form his thoughts into words.
"I met her over a year ago - before Robin left. Not like that," he said, making Megan aware of what was showing on her face. "We're friends. Good friends."
This surprised Megan a little less than she thought. Everyone knew Don was a private person, keeping his relationships, whether romantic or platonic, as closely guarded as he could. Though in Megan's mind, having a secret friend was better than having a secret 'friend'.
"I met her and just knew I had to get to know her better," said Don, a smile lighting up his face.
Megan began to pay even closer attention to details and body language, because this was a side of Don she hadn't seen in awhile. "Have you ever met someone, and realized that they're completely fascinating? That you wanted to know more about them? Where every little thing you learn only makes you want to know more and more until you become a part of their interesting world, so irrevocably tied in with them that you can't imagine not knowing this person?"
Megan knew exactly how that felt - it was what led her to Larry.
Don huffed out a breath, "And then I go and screw it up."
"Last night," Megan concluded, fitting a whole bunch of pieces together, including the hangover. Drunken sex with a good friend rarely ended well. "How did she react?"
"She left before I woke up," he said, sounding defeated. Megan felt for Don, she really did. His personal life was like the Rocky Mountains littered with land mines.
"Have you tried talking to her?" she asked.
"She hasn't called me, and I'm not sure what to say to her. I don't even know how to start that conversation."
"Well, you could always start with 'Hi'," she said, smiling lightly.
"Smartass."
"Seriously Don, you need to make a decision here," she said after a moment. "Do you want to go back to being friends, with all these issues floating between you? Or do you want to see if something can come of it, romantically? Because I don't think you'd be brooding this much if there wasn't some interest on your part."
"You really think this could go in that direction?" Don asked her uncertainly.
"Look, I don't know her, or how you are with her, but I know you. There had to have been something pretty fantastic about her to grab your attention the way she did, and then keep you interested for over a year. Now, if you think that something is enough to build a real relationship from, then go ahead and take the chance. But if you don't think anything will come of it, then work like hell to get your friendship back on track. Either way, she sounds like she's important enough to you that whatever you choose, you'll do your best to make it work."
Don just stared at her for a moment, and Megan could swear she could see the wheels turning in his head.
"I need to think about this some more. I-" he said, only to be cut off by his ringing phone.
Megan watched him, hoping to get back to the topic of this mysterious woman. She really wanted to question Don about her, but would settle for anything. Though a name would be nice.
Any hope she had of pulling the information from him was dashed as she heard, "Charlie, yeah, what have you got?"
There would always be later.
~!~
Megan really wished Don would pick better times and places for these personal epiphanies of his, because after late night witness hunts was not the best time. An unexpected turn in their government issue Suburban had her grasping at anything solid as the vehicle lurched around a corner with squealing tires.
Don's only comment was, "You want a coffee?"
Megan stared at him mildly astonished, and blinked. "It's eleven at night."
"I know this great place that's open late." That was all she got from him as he drove through the streets of LA, in search of a specific place.
He was supremely focused on driving, but Megan didn't delude herself into thinking that he was actually seeing the road in front of him. He seemed to have come to some important decision - no guesses as to what - and was determined to act on it. Right. This. Minute.
They pulled to a stop near what was obviously a trendy coffeehouse near the UCLA campus, and Megan had the sudden panic that Don's mystery woman was a college co-ed. Then she reminded herself that even if she was fairly young, Don wouldn't be interested in someone who wasn't at least as mature as he was. Well, as mature as he was most of the time.
"I'll be back in a minute," he said as he slid out of the car, walking determinedly across the street and into the coffeehouse.
Megan was tempted to try and sneak a closer peek at this mystery woman of Don's - assuming that's why they were here, and not to feed their government issue caffeine habits. She had a good vantage point from inside the car, thanks to the glass storefront. She watched as he paused just inside the door before moving to the counter and talking to the dark haired girl behind the counter. Whatever he said had the dark haired girl going in to the back, and a minute later a redhead emerged. By the way she froze when she saw Don, Megan was willing to bet that this was her.
A redhead. That was new.
She really wished she'd thought to plant a bug on Don before he went in there, because whatever he was saying was making the redhead fidget and avoid eye contact. He managed to get her to come out from behind the counter, and Megan sent a silent thanks to Don for staying in her line of sight. She had an even better view of them now, and watched as Don and the woman had what looked like an uncomfortable conversation.
Well, if what Megan had thought happened, had really happened, she could understand where the awkwardness was coming from.
Then Don took a step closer, reached out and pulled her into a very interesting kiss.
Well, that answered the question about what Don had decided to do. And if the way the redhead was clutching at his shirt was any indication, the interest was definitely returned.
They finally broke apart, talking for a few more minutes with the woman nodding a few times. There was another brief kiss shared before Don motioned towards the Suburban with his head and left the coffeehouse. Even from across the street, Megan could see the huge smile that lit the red head's face as Don reluctantly made his way back to the car. Even Don was having trouble keeping the grin off his face when he got back into the driver's seat.
"Well, that's an interesting ordering technique," she commented as they started to drive away.
"Shut up," he retorted, a smile in his voice. She could be wrong, but there may have been a blush, too.
Megan just turned towards him in her seat. "Seriously, Don. Where's my coffee?"
End Part 6
Part 7
Author: lyl_devil
Rating: PG-15
Fandom: BtVS, Numb3rs
Pairing: Willow/Don
Beta: strangevisitor7 & kallie_kat
Words: ~36,000 (as of Dec 4, 2008)
Disclaimer: I don’t own either show. I just like to play in their sandboxes.
Summary: Every action has a consequence and every deal comes with a price. Willow’s life is wiped clean, so she makes a new one for herself in LA.
Master Post
Note: I don’t claim to know anything about magic, medicine or the FBI - what I didn’t pick up from tv and books, I made up.
~!~
Part 6
Megan waited until the third heaping spoonful of salt was added to his coffee before calling him on it.
"Something bothering you, Don?" asked Megan, keeping one eye on Colby and David through the glass of the break room wall. A subtle twitch of her head conveyed her request, both nodding in agreement. Satisfied that the two agents would keep others out for a few minutes, Megan turned all her attention on her boss.
He'd been distracted and unfocused all morning, going so far as to snap at anyone unlucky enough to wander into his vicinity. David and Colby both agreed with her that it wasn't just the obvious hangover that was the cause for Don's attitude today, and the guys had left it to her to find the reason.
"Hm?" he said distractedly, pulling out his cell phone. He looked at it intently for a moment before putting it away. That was another thing David had commented on - the constant phone checks. They couldn't figure out if he was trying to decide to call someone, or waiting for it to ring, but either way it was very unlike him. Don was rarely indecisive at work, always making the call no matter how tough it was. His personal life was a different matter though; still, he rarely let it intrude on his work.
"You seem distracted this morning," she said simply, taking a small sip of her coffee.
"I'm fine." Right. Like that was going to convince anyone, Megan thought.
"How's your coffee?" she asked pointedly, waiting patiently as he gave her a weird look before taking a deliberate drink.
Then waiting patiently as he spat it out into the sink.
"Decaf?" she asked teasingly, keeping the smile small and hidden behind her cup. Don took a few mouthfuls of water to rinse the taste of salty coffee from his mouth, before looking to the container of salt he'd been using to sweeten his coffee. Megan watched as his shoulders slumped slightly in defeat.
"It's nothing."
"It's not nothing if you're salting your coffee without realizing it, Don."
"I just need to work some stuff out," he insisted, turning to face her. "Personal stuff."
That was the Don Eppes she was more familiar with. The one that needed to mull something over very carefully before deciding whether or not to open himself up emotionally.
Which meant there was a woman in Don's life. A woman no one on the team knew about; that most likely his family didn't know about. It seemed fairly serious if the way he was brooding was any indication.
"You know I'm always willing to listen," she offered, hoping he would open up to her.
"Yeah, I know," he said, giving her a small smile. "So, where are we on those real estate records?"
Later, Megan regretted not pushing for more information from Don. She knew she could have pried the information out of him one way or another. Instead she stood confused and helpless as she - and most of the office - watched the shadowy figures of Don and a visitor have an arm-waving, yelling match in the interrogation room. The words might be muffled, but the volume and the tone sure weren't.
"Who is he?" she asked Colby, turning her head but keeping her eyes on the drama going on behind the blinds.
"Milo Grant," he said as he put down the receiver. "Signed in as a guest of Vic Renkins from the basement."
Information Retrieval Unit. Huh. "But how does he know Don?" she asked absently, wondering how a friend of the IRU head came to be having a yelling match with an FBI field agent.
"I have no clue," said Colby.
Megan continued to watch the shadow figures, her mind putting together pieces of a puzzle she didn't know existed until today.
The door to Interrogation partially opened and their guest, Milo, threw one last volley at Don, "Fix it, Eppes. I don't care how!"
The rest of the office suddenly found their work extra fascinating, but Megan kept her eye on the door as Milo stormed back to the elevator.
Waiting for activity to return to normal around her, Megan considered her next move. They were in the middle of evidence gathering, just starting to put the pieces together on the new case they were working. Don half-focussed now was an annoyance, but later it could be dangerous if his head wasn't fully in the game.
"Woah, what happened here?" said a voice, drawing Megan's attention away from the older Eppes brother to greet the younger one. Charlie had arrived to help them make some sense of the numbers they were seeing in the current case. Apparently he had arrived too late to see the midday show. However, he had arrived in time to catch the awkward, unnatural silence that still held a grip on the majority of the office.
"Hey, Charlie. You ever heard of a guy named Milo Grant?" asked Colby.
"Mi-no, I don't think - should I have?" Charlie asked, looking confused at the non sequitur.
"Well, he sure knows Don."
Before Colby could start to gossip like the teenage girl she secretly thought he was, Megan announced, "I think Don could use a coffee."
"He could use a beer," said David. Megan ignored him, and made her way to the interrogation room Don had yet to emerge from.
Megan popped her head in the room and asked, "You want to get a coffee?"
"We have coffee here," he said, looking confused.
"Yeah, but we're out of salt," she smiled. "C'mon, let get out of this place for a bit."
Turning on her heels, Megan boldly walked towards the elevator, hoping that her bravado would be enough to pull Don along behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she was please to see him coming towards her.
A short while later, sitting outside one of the nearby cafes, Don started to look more relaxed by the minute.
"You going to tell me what's going on with you?" she asked, breaking the silence. For a minute she didn't think she would get a response.
Don sighed quietly and said, "I made a mistake last night."
"How so?"
"Something happened that I never meant to happen, and I don't know how to deal with it."
"Does this have to do with a woman?" she asked quietly, knowing what a minefield Don's romantic life was like. And it had barely been a month since Liz, so she was doubly cautious.
"Yeah."
"Does it have anything to do with why you came in hung over this morning?"
A little quieter, "Yeah."
"How long have you been seeing her?"
"I haven't been - not in the way you mean."
Megan remained silent, waiting for Don to form his thoughts into words.
"I met her over a year ago - before Robin left. Not like that," he said, making Megan aware of what was showing on her face. "We're friends. Good friends."
This surprised Megan a little less than she thought. Everyone knew Don was a private person, keeping his relationships, whether romantic or platonic, as closely guarded as he could. Though in Megan's mind, having a secret friend was better than having a secret 'friend'.
"I met her and just knew I had to get to know her better," said Don, a smile lighting up his face.
Megan began to pay even closer attention to details and body language, because this was a side of Don she hadn't seen in awhile. "Have you ever met someone, and realized that they're completely fascinating? That you wanted to know more about them? Where every little thing you learn only makes you want to know more and more until you become a part of their interesting world, so irrevocably tied in with them that you can't imagine not knowing this person?"
Megan knew exactly how that felt - it was what led her to Larry.
Don huffed out a breath, "And then I go and screw it up."
"Last night," Megan concluded, fitting a whole bunch of pieces together, including the hangover. Drunken sex with a good friend rarely ended well. "How did she react?"
"She left before I woke up," he said, sounding defeated. Megan felt for Don, she really did. His personal life was like the Rocky Mountains littered with land mines.
"Have you tried talking to her?" she asked.
"She hasn't called me, and I'm not sure what to say to her. I don't even know how to start that conversation."
"Well, you could always start with 'Hi'," she said, smiling lightly.
"Smartass."
"Seriously Don, you need to make a decision here," she said after a moment. "Do you want to go back to being friends, with all these issues floating between you? Or do you want to see if something can come of it, romantically? Because I don't think you'd be brooding this much if there wasn't some interest on your part."
"You really think this could go in that direction?" Don asked her uncertainly.
"Look, I don't know her, or how you are with her, but I know you. There had to have been something pretty fantastic about her to grab your attention the way she did, and then keep you interested for over a year. Now, if you think that something is enough to build a real relationship from, then go ahead and take the chance. But if you don't think anything will come of it, then work like hell to get your friendship back on track. Either way, she sounds like she's important enough to you that whatever you choose, you'll do your best to make it work."
Don just stared at her for a moment, and Megan could swear she could see the wheels turning in his head.
"I need to think about this some more. I-" he said, only to be cut off by his ringing phone.
Megan watched him, hoping to get back to the topic of this mysterious woman. She really wanted to question Don about her, but would settle for anything. Though a name would be nice.
Any hope she had of pulling the information from him was dashed as she heard, "Charlie, yeah, what have you got?"
There would always be later.
~!~
Megan really wished Don would pick better times and places for these personal epiphanies of his, because after late night witness hunts was not the best time. An unexpected turn in their government issue Suburban had her grasping at anything solid as the vehicle lurched around a corner with squealing tires.
Don's only comment was, "You want a coffee?"
Megan stared at him mildly astonished, and blinked. "It's eleven at night."
"I know this great place that's open late." That was all she got from him as he drove through the streets of LA, in search of a specific place.
He was supremely focused on driving, but Megan didn't delude herself into thinking that he was actually seeing the road in front of him. He seemed to have come to some important decision - no guesses as to what - and was determined to act on it. Right. This. Minute.
They pulled to a stop near what was obviously a trendy coffeehouse near the UCLA campus, and Megan had the sudden panic that Don's mystery woman was a college co-ed. Then she reminded herself that even if she was fairly young, Don wouldn't be interested in someone who wasn't at least as mature as he was. Well, as mature as he was most of the time.
"I'll be back in a minute," he said as he slid out of the car, walking determinedly across the street and into the coffeehouse.
Megan was tempted to try and sneak a closer peek at this mystery woman of Don's - assuming that's why they were here, and not to feed their government issue caffeine habits. She had a good vantage point from inside the car, thanks to the glass storefront. She watched as he paused just inside the door before moving to the counter and talking to the dark haired girl behind the counter. Whatever he said had the dark haired girl going in to the back, and a minute later a redhead emerged. By the way she froze when she saw Don, Megan was willing to bet that this was her.
A redhead. That was new.
She really wished she'd thought to plant a bug on Don before he went in there, because whatever he was saying was making the redhead fidget and avoid eye contact. He managed to get her to come out from behind the counter, and Megan sent a silent thanks to Don for staying in her line of sight. She had an even better view of them now, and watched as Don and the woman had what looked like an uncomfortable conversation.
Well, if what Megan had thought happened, had really happened, she could understand where the awkwardness was coming from.
Then Don took a step closer, reached out and pulled her into a very interesting kiss.
Well, that answered the question about what Don had decided to do. And if the way the redhead was clutching at his shirt was any indication, the interest was definitely returned.
They finally broke apart, talking for a few more minutes with the woman nodding a few times. There was another brief kiss shared before Don motioned towards the Suburban with his head and left the coffeehouse. Even from across the street, Megan could see the huge smile that lit the red head's face as Don reluctantly made his way back to the car. Even Don was having trouble keeping the grin off his face when he got back into the driver's seat.
"Well, that's an interesting ordering technique," she commented as they started to drive away.
"Shut up," he retorted, a smile in his voice. She could be wrong, but there may have been a blush, too.
Megan just turned towards him in her seat. "Seriously, Don. Where's my coffee?"
End Part 6
Part 7